and the sky falls
by Ju5t An0th3r H3d63h06
Summary: In which a rather questionable list makes its appearance and Hugh and Rosa's friendship hangs in the balance. —au, sequel, oneshot. {for HughMAY Week, day 5/6/7}


**a/n: New title to be determined at a later date, because my mom is going to kill me. D: Also, someone pretend this is in the same temporal plane as break out the blu-ray and we will be golden.**

**Disclaimer: The Mudkip owns nothing of Pokemon.**

* * *

Stratus clouds swirl across the darkened sky, armed with the promise of rain. Humidity chokes the air, another sure sign of the deluge to come. Gusts of wind snatch hats and scarves away from unsuspecting pedestrians, and the pedestrians who suspect the wind of doing so quicken their pace.

Said pedestrians include teenager Hugh Noir, who is racing against time to make it to school. He bursts through the front doors of the high school and barrels through the hallways, not bothering to drop his books off at his locker, skidding through the doors of his homeroom a second after the bell rings. The teacher gives him a sympathetic look as she hands him a late slip.

Upon reporting to the principal's office, Hugh discovers Rosa parked on the principal's bench for her daily uniform violation, clutching an orange slip similar to the pale-pink one in his hand. Today she is sporting Rollerblades with princess stickers on them, and Hugh laughs as he takes a seat next to her. She inquires about his Ace-bandages right hand and he shakes his head with a rueful grin, not willing to divulge the cause of his mysterious injury. (Also known as the same reason her loser of an ex is currently at the nurse's office, but Hugh is smart enough to beat people up before school.)

"It's Monday," sighs Principal Lamont as he catches sight of the two sitting cheerfully on his bench. "Don't you think it's a little too early for this?"

They eat lunch together on top of the jungle gym in the new playground, ignoring the strange looks of their fellow high schoolers as they discuss their lucky escape with the principal. Eventually, other topics are broached.

"Did you know you talk in your sleep?" Hugh grins mischievously at his cinnamon-haired best friend, kicking the ground with a Converse-clad foot.

"Waugh!" Rosa almost drops her lunch as she lunges forward in panic. "When was this? What did I say?"

"When you came over on Friday." Hugh's grin widens as he lazily coaxes his swing higher. "And don't worry, it was nothing too bad."

"Nothing too bad?!" Rosa tosses a sandwich wrapper at him. "Hugh Noir, you have thirty seconds…" An impromptu game of tag ensues, and Hugh wins by climbing on the highest part of the slide and not getting down until the bell rings for classes. He's late, again, but he figures it's better than being mauled.

* * *

After school, Hugh invites Rosa over, to which she readily agrees. Ignoring the jokes from his sister about keeping the door open (and slamming the door behind him for good measure) the cobalt-haired teenager proofreads his best friend's poetry analysis while she explains what a logarithm is for the third time. After about fifteen minutes of this, they give up on homework and switch to other pursuits.

"Top ten ice cream flavors." The cinnamon-haired girl taps her chin with the tip of her sparkly blue pen. "Um…Chocolate chip cookie dough, fudge ripple, choco mint chip…"

"Put birthday cake on there too," cuts in Hugh distractedly as he searches for a connecting piece to make the Eiffel Tower stand up straight.

The door opens slightly, and Hugh's mother pokes her head in. Her cropped cobalt hair matches that of her son's perfectly. "How's the homework coming along?"

Hugh attempts to shove the Lego sculpture under the bed while Rosa tosses her notebook into the radiator in a panic.

Ayako Noir merely laughs. "Nice try, you two. I brought up some snacks, but it seems you aren't in need of brain food…" She holds up a tray of what appears to be miniature Nutella and peanut butter sandwiches, accompanied by two glasses of milk.

"We'll focus! Promise!" blurts Rosa eagerly upon catching sight of her favorite food.

"You're so predictable," scoffs Hugh, quirking a half-grin despite himself.

Hugh's mother hands the plate over to Rosa, who's practically bouncing with happiness, and invites her to stay for dinner. The cinnamon-haired teenager accepts gratefully, and Hugh quickly convinces himself the grin on his face is because he's coincidentally located the Eiffel Tower's top piece at the same time as her acceptance of the invitation.

As if giving voice to his thoughts, Rosa seaks up once Hugh's mother is down the stairs.

"…I've been a rather half-assed best friend as of late, haven't I?"

Hugh avoids her expression. "People grow apart sometimes, Rosa. It's not your fault."

"No," says Rosa, cerulean eyes steely. "We didn't grow apart. I left the one person who mattered to me most in favor of _Curtis._" She spits out the name like it is venom.

Hugh stands up and crosses the room, dropping the top of the Eiffel Tower. It rolls underneath his bed as he takes a seat next to the cinnamon-haired girl. "Rosa. Last year was last year. I'm fine. You're…less fine, but we can fix that. We're talking now, aren't we?"

"He was walking around with a black eye today." Rosa swipes at her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt. "Is that why you were late?"

"Why would you think that?" Hugh rewraps the bandage on his hand to fully cover his bruised knuckles. "I mean, beating people up…that's grounds for expulsion, isn't it?"

"Oh, ha ha," replies his best friend snidely, but she's laughing through her tears. "I'm going to go get a tissue."

"I'll eat your sandwich," warns Hugh.

"Do it and die," replies Rosa threateningly, only half joking as she slips out the door.

Hugh leans over the bed and fishes Rosa's electric-blue notebook out of the radiator, placing it on the bed as he searches for the pen that she's apparently also dropped behind his bed. A gust of wind swirls through the open window, chilling the back of his neck, and as he moves to shut it he catches sight of a small piece of paper that has flown out of the open notebook.

Abandoning the window for the time being, Hugh picks up the sheet. It appears to be another list, probably one that has come loose from the bindings of Rosa's notebook as a direct result of her indifference to taking care of her notebooks. Scanning it quickly, the cobalt-haired teenager discovers that it's a list of Rosa's top ten qualities in a guy.

Ignoring the part of his brain that is flashing giant warning lights and yelling, "FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, PUT IT DOWN AND PRETEND YOU DIDN'T SEE ANYTHING," Hugh scans the page with rising trepidation.

_Taller than me._

_Gives good hugs._

_Gives good advice._

_Gives a damn about my opinion._

_Brings me a mocha frappucino and a donut when he comes to school late for a dentist's appointment._

_Watches a crap ton of Disney and Dreamworks movies with me whenever I'm bored or depressed._

_Knows just what to say to cheer me up._

_Helps me study for an AP exam even when he has a completely different AP exam tomorrow._

_Willingly holds my bags at the mall (to which I'm still amazed that he agreed to take me.)_

_Has gorgeous spiky hair and…oh, who am I kidding._

* * *

Heart pounding, Hugh drops the list like it was on fire.

Rosa is standing in the doorway, and for once, Hugh wishes that he could not communicate with his best friend through expressions alone.

* * *

_There's no chance you're going to un-see that, is there?_

_No._

_Dammit._

* * *

Rosa turns tail and bolts from his room.

"Shit," announces Hugh as he flies down the stairs after her. The front door slams, and he shoves his feet into the nearest pair of sneakers to the door—luckily, they're actually his—and wrenches it back open, dashing into the dismal weather.

"Well, this should be interesting." Hugh's sister leans over the balcony, brown hair in a frizzy halo around her head thanks to the humidity, and grins at their flabbergasted mother before grabbing the nearest ponytail and wrestling her chocolate curls into it. "I hope Nate's new camera is waterproof," she adds as she disappears in search of a raincoat.

* * *

"Rosa!"

The rain hasn't started just yet, but the fog is just as thick, and the cobalt-haired teenager can barely see his hand in front of his face. The rational part of his mind tells him to give up and go home, but then the temporal lobe tells it to go die in a ditch. Meanwhile, the rest of his brain is reviewing all possible places Rosa could have fled to. Logic dictates her house, but Hugh knows that if he's not thinking logically at this moment, then neither is his best friend. He dashes across the street and heads in the direction of the Lookout.

True to form, his cinnamon-haired best friend is standing underneath a streetlight.

"The sign on the bottom of the steps doesn't lie," muses Rosa without turning around. "Even when the fog has practically taken over from Aspertia to Virbank, you can still see the bay."

"Stop freaking out, Rosa," replies Hugh by way of greeting. "It was just a piece of paper."

"I am not freaking out," declares Rosa, spinning around indignantly and glaring at him.

"You come to the Lookout. You're freaking out."

Rosa sighs and turns back to the railing. "You know and I know that nothing will ever be the same between us again, okay? So just…don't."

"Bit late for that now, isn't it?" Hugh quirks an eyebrow. "I'm here, aren't I? That counts for something."

"You're so stupid." Rosa gives him a pained glare. "Just…just go away. You're not helping."

"Yeah, I probably am stupid," agrees Hugh, meeting her cerulean gaze evenly as he takes a step forward. "But I'm not going away, because that's not what best friends do. Even those whose relationship is in question."

"If you kiss me in the rain, I'm going to kill you."

"Good thing the rain hasn't started yet."

* * *

The irony is that even though both Hugh and Rosa despise clichés with all their hearts, the duo's love story has been full of them since its inception. But as they stand together in the rain that isn't technically rain, Hugh is beginning to realize that he may not mind all that much.

* * *

Fin.


End file.
